Blog Post #12

Someone has a psychological disorder when their thoughts, feelings, and actions, are deviant, distressful, and dysfunctional. Although almost all people feel these ways at one time or another in their life, actually having the disorder is a little different. The spells last much longer and go to a more extreme than in everyday scenarios. Just acting abnormally doesn’t mean you have a psychological disorder. In most cases the term abnormally may just depend on where you are, the time, and the culture you are in. The only way “abnormally” becomes a psychological disorder is when it becomes dangerous or harmful.
My aunt’s ex-husband suffered from bipolar disorder, which is when a person goes from one extreme emotion to the next, mania to depression. Mania is when you are hyperactive and wildly optimistic and depression is the complete opposite, you’re sad and unhappy. The fact that my uncle actually had bipolar disorder had a huge impact on why they got a divorce. He didn’t have it when they got married so my aunt had no idea that she would ever have to deal with it. My aunt couldn’t handle the situation at hand mainly because he didn’t want to take his medicine so he was getting worse. After she had left him he tried killing himself twice, once by overdoes and the second time by cutting his wrists. He went to mental hospital for a while but as soon as he got out it was the same thing, he ended up marrying this woman he hardly even knew and we were all constantly hearing about the crazy things that him and his new wife were doing. It was actually really sad. I feel so bad for my aunt having to go through that. I would never wish that upon anyone.
The most interesting thing I learned from this section was the actual number of people who suffer from psychological disorders. I can’t believe how many there are. It’s so common and I had no idea. But I suppose many people could be treating their disorders so I might not have any clue that something was wrong with the person right next to me.